Comparedtoadultschildrenseemtobemovingconstantly．Soit'snosurprisethatmostparentswhoarequizzedabouttheirchild'sphysicalactivityleveldescribetheirchildrenasfairlyactive．Butanewstudyofnearly2000Britishschoolchildrensuggeststhatmanyparentsoverestimatetheamountofphysicalactivitytheirchildrenarereallygetting．

Theresearchersequipped1892Britishschoolchildrenages9and10withaccelerometersthatmeasureallphysicalactivityduringagiventimeperiod．TheresearchknownastheSpeedystudycollectedtheexercisedatafromchildrenat92schoolsinNorfolkEnglandbetweenAprilandJuly2007．

Achildwasregardedinactiveifheorsherecordedlessthananhouradayofphysicalactivity．Althoughthemajorityofchildrenstudiedweregettingenoughphysicalactivityasizableminorityofchildrenwerenot．Overall39percentofgirlsand18percentofboysstudiedweregettinglessthananhourofphysicalactivityeachday．

Butifyouaskedtheparentsoftheinactivechildrentodescribetheirchild'sactivitylevelthevastmajority—80percent—describedtheirchildrenasfairlyorveryphysicallyactiveaccordingtothefindingspublishedintheAmericanJournalofPreventiveMedicine．Interestinglythechildrenthemselveshadmoreawarenessabouttheirlackofphysicalactivity．Overall40percentofchildrenoverestimatedtheirphysicalactivity．

Butitwasn'ttheparentsofoverweightchildrenwhoweremostlikelytoguesswrongaboutphysicalactivitylevels．Theparentswhoweremostoutoftouchabouttheirchild'sphysicalfitnessweremorelikelytohavechildrenwhowereslim．Parentsofgirlswerealsomorelikelytooverestimatephysicalactivity．Theresearchersnotedthatparentsshouldbeeducatedabouttheimportanceofphysicalactivityforchildrenevenifthechildisnotoverweight．

"Parentsofslimchildrenappeartoassumethattheirchildrenareadequatelyactive"thestudyauthorsreported．"Increasingawarenessregardinghealthbenefitsofphysicalactivitybeyondweightcontrolmighthelphaveacorrectideaofphysicalactivitylevelsandencouragebehaviorchange．"

69．AccordingtotheSpeedystudywhatkindofchildrencanbejudgedphysicallyinactive?

A．S